OR LOSERS?

SCARLETT JOHANSSON reportedly rejected funding from Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for her next film, a biopic about photojournalist Lynsey Addario, who said: “Scarlett Johansson said absolutely not. She said: ‘This guy is perpetuating the war in Yemen. He has women in prison.’ ” The move predated the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul.

U2’S Larry Mullen bravely acknowledged that people “could do with taking a break from us and vice versa”. The band have seven gigs left in their current world tour, their third in four years, on the back of two studio albums between 2014 and 2017. Time for some R&R, guys?

THUMBS DOWN

AFTER his Manchester United team lost to Juventus in the Champions League, Jose Mourinho grouched that they were behind the Italians and other members of the European elite, which, he implied, have better recruitment policies. He’s obviously forgetting the 11 high-profile players he’s signed in the last two years for a total of £360 million.

DONALD TRUMP responded to the attempted pipe-bombings in America by demanding that the media “set a civil tone and stop the endless hostility”. This from a president who gives free rein to his taste for combative, sneering rhetoric.

What happens is I wake up in the middle of the night to my heart pounding, my breathing heavy and unable to move my body. I feel awake, though I can’t move my arms or legs. It’s as though my whole body is paralysed and I have no control over anything. I usually fight and shout

for help, or force myself to wake up. When the body is asleep, rapid eye movement happens. which is when the brain is still active, but the only part of my body that I’m able to move is my eyes and muscles. It can occur because of all kinds of reasons – for example, shift work or sleep deprivation. It isn’t harmful but it does leave me feeling quite frightened.

It often makes me hallucinate and, when I looked into it, I read that most people see demons. The most common is usually a figure who appears at the foot of the bed, which is quite unsettling. It’s an older woman or a shapeless, black shadow. I have to force myself to wake up at that point or else I’ll start to feel hands touching my legs or a heavy weight sitting on my chest, even though nothing is there. My husband is aware of it and knows what I’m experiencing so he helps me to wake up if he hears me making noises or taking deep breaths.

It occurs once a month, though in the past I’ve experienced it more frequently. It can last anything from five to several minutes. When I was younger and training to be a nurse, I used to work a lot of long shifts, which made it more frequent. I remember I used to be really spooked out about it but now that I’m older and I know what it is, it doesn’t worry me as much. I know it’s not real.

My sister has experienced it too, which made me question if my sleep paralysis is hereditary. I can gauge